She Falls
by RockefellerFrank
Summary: She had made her choice, she had tried to turn them into human targets, and when that failed she tried to use them as such. He wasn't even surprised at this point, she had always been ruthless. And Epsilon had a knack for turning people, he'd had the migraines to prove it.


He doesn't feel guilty. Not a bit.

She had made her choice, she had tried to turn them into human targets, and when that failed she tried to use them as such. He wasn't even surprised at this point, she had always been ruthless. And Epsilon had a knack for turning people, he'd had the migraines to prove it.

Tucker was back from 'scouting Red Base.' By 'Red Base' he meant a crumpled pile of porn magazines he kept in a cave near by. And by 'scouting' he meant jerking off over. You couldn't get anything past Wash.

He entered with pride and entitlement, like the entire canyon belonged to him. Wash consider's whether to mention how his visits to 'Red Base' are getting shorter every time, and ask if he's losing his endurance, but sets the idea aside. It would be petty, and they had enough petty happening around here.

'What are you looking at?' he asks, and Wash considers bringing up his endurance to avoid the subject.

'It's a Bio-comm. It lets me check the vital signs of any soldier I have on the system. This is Carolina.' The numbers and letters and thin green lines changed and twirled with every second.

'Oh. What's she feeling?' He's perched over Wash's shoulder now, staring at the spider's web of cracks on the screen of the scanner.

'Fear.'

* * *

The base was empty. There was no security, no turrets, no guards. It was a ghost town.

'Are you sure this is the place?' she asks, brazenly. The front door of the facility was bent outwards, like something had tried to escape. The bent metal is covered in leaves and mud, rocks gathered underneath after falling from the cliff above and rolling down into the facility.

'I'm sure. Let's go'

* * *

Sarge wasn't the same. Something had changed in him since Church had gone 'Angry-Giant-AI-Thing'

Simmons felt the same.

Grif was taking a nap. Some things never change.

* * *

She parades around the safe-house like a lion. Her strides become wide and confident, her posture straight.

'You're not exactly being stealthy right now Carolina.' Epsilon's voice in her ear/mind. Like a dull saw.

'Why would I need to be? The facility is empty.'

The scowl is back in her voice. She's thinking he's got it wrong. Somewhere outside a vulture is cawing over it's prey.

* * *

Caboose is sad.

He is sad because Church was mad at him.

Church yelled at him.

Church got very big and shouty.

Church was not his best friend any more.

* * *

They find the teleporter in the middle of the storage area. Shadows hung over every side like jagged teeth, like the building was going to come down and swallow them. This wasn't the worse thing that could happen, she thinks.

She carries her old gun now, the alien tech she stole from the Insurrectionists. She ponders taking her helmet off before going through, letting who ever was on the other side see her rage. She settles on leaving it on, better safe then sorry. Especially when she is this close.

'Anything you want to say before we do this?' Epsilon's voice again. She silences him with a flick of her wrist, and plunges into the pulsing green light.

She should have been more prepared.

* * *

'What's she feeling now?'

'Adrenaline'

* * *

She bounces off of walls, off bodies and boxes.

She fires constantly, sometimes with precision, sometimes with reckless abandon.

She barely leaves a dent.

She uses every advantage she has.

She screams at Epsilon to help.

She falls.

* * *

'How about now?'

'Pain'

* * *

They surround her, thousands of metal boots dancing in her eyesight, shimmering from the heavy lights in the roof. All around, a ring of empty shells. She almost thinks it would be poetic if she wasn't about to die. Maybe that makes it more poetic.

_Better luck next time, Carolina_

* * *

Wash closes down the scanner, tucking it under his bunk and watching the light flicker before it blinks out completely. Tucker walks out quietly.

Now he feels guilty.


End file.
